Kayaking on the flashes on a dark Autumn morning

Last night we packed our kayaking kit up ready for an early morning session on the flashes in the dark so I needed my light kit for setting the kayaks up by the canal which consists of 2 bright lights on 2 tripods which in the end worked out really. As it was our first time setting up in the dark with all the kit I was excited to get on the water and lie back and enjoy floating around looking up at the stars. It was a clear, cloudless sky the moon was full and shining bright lots of stars lit up the sky and the main thing was that the water was still making it perfect for spotting any night time creatures. As were on the way down we heard a few pairs of Tawny Owls calling back and forth which really created a wonderful scene of a perfect Autumn morning. After a 10 minute walk from my house I loaded my gear onto the kayak after pumping it up making sure each valve was tightly closed as I did not want that sinking feeling especially in the dark.

I managed to Jam one of my bright camcorder lights on the front of my 

kayak under my back pack so I could see where I was heading and was lucky I did as a few fisher man had camped on the towpath and even with the light I could see any lines but as I used to fish I thought they would be fishing on the bottom so no threats of hooks getting caught on the kayak were possible but I did here a bleep of the bait alarm going off so we must have disturbed there lines a little bit I just hope they did not think they had caught anything. After crossing the canal to the larger area of the flashes I spotted Moorhens still a sleep on there reed bed platforms not bothered by me sailing past them within a metre or two, I think I could have stroked them if I had wanted but I did not want to disturb they dreams of a perfect summers day eating bread thrown in by the canal boaters.
 

My brother Ryan kayaking on the flashes and as you can see from the background it was very dark

After an hour of relaxing and paddling around with the search lights looking for any movement on the flashes then at last the sun came up lighting the sky with an orange glow then a cold visible mist on the waters surface began to form.

After breakfast at Otters pass island we paddled back across the flashes packed up our kit and went back home to refuel and change our kit with plans to go to the Tawny glade hide to film the wild bird flocks gathering at the bird feeding station.

The feeders arrangement has changed since filming this video so I will post in the future to as I moved the feeders closer to bring the birds nearer to the hide.

Thanks for reading


Mike